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Album Thu Mar 22 2007
120 Days'...120 Days
The great things about rock-tronica bands from Norway is that they're f-ing Rock-tronica bands from Norway. They've got guitar drones, keyboard drones, Casio beeps, Kraftwerk and Neu! homages and some seriously heavy headbobbing potential. This is the kind of music that makes you into a spectacle on the train. You're that guy, getting a little bit too excited with the hair tosses in the Red Line vestibule. But you know what? It's alright.
120 Days' self-titled album has been around for a bit now, and if you're lucky, you've picked it up, and not just for the sexy sexy retro '80s hairstyles of the four band members Jonas Dahl, Arne Kvalvik, Kjetil Ovesen and Ådne Meisfjord. The songs are sieved out of cold, dark, long Oslo nights — ones we could probably relate to pretty easily here in dreary Chicago — but don't despair! You can sing along (yup, in English, thanks Norway for making it easy on us) "keep on smiling" in the song of the same title while you do that cute kick-step dance Molly Ringwald perfected in The Breakfast Club (at least, that's my first pick). Or you can get your serious dance on during the seriously adrenaline-raising 8-minute track "C-Musik" with lines that make you think you're going to need some days in rehab later just for getting that high. In "Sleepwalking": "I can dance this night away / Take me somewhere else and make me feel ok." Indeed.
This is music just perfect for raising yourself out of the dead of winter. It's officially spring — put on some shoes, put this on the 'pod and get out the door.
You can pick 120 Days up all around town at your LRS of choice, or from VICE Records.
